A winning double for Invictus.
After a period of silence following the release of their first album, the trio from Nagano released two demos in 2024, which were compiled into an album the following year. In 2026, Takehitopsy Seki (vocals/guitar), Haruki Tokutake (drums), and Toshihiro Seki (bass) were ready to unveil Nocturnal Visions, their second album, with the help of Me Saco un Ojo Records.
The short but haunting introduction sets the tone for this album before an agonizing noise pushes us into the violence of Abyssal Earth Eradicates, the first track where riffs already rain down at a good pace, supported by raw and brutal vocals. The band however doesn’t neglect the groove, thanks to powerful bass and catchy parts, as well as well-managed accelerations and a few piercing leads, before moving on to the devastating Altar of Devoted Slaughter, where the tempo races ahead and allows the three musicians to trample us with massive rhythms. Even the slower passages quickly become imposing, while Lucid Dream Trauma focuses on its haunting harmonics to create hypnotic patterns thanks to influences borrowed from Doom Metal. The sound is deliberately very heavy at first, but you can feel it regularly igniting, returning to the blast before leaving us with Persecution Madness’ sharp melodies which once again picks up the pace and offers more complex but equally devastating parts that shape the repeated assaults. This is followed by Dragged Beneath the Grave, which also offers a fast rhythm that delivers waves of aggression at a good pace, but also a rather short tortured solo before the riffs take over again, followed by those of Wandering Ashdream, which immediately make us want to bang our heads. The song is fairly simple but extremely catchy, then reveals a polished solo before Frozen Tomb hits us at full speed, also delivering its dose of violence with a fast, scathing lead before giving way to the long Nocturnal Visions, the final eight-minute composition in which fury, complexity, head-spinning patterns, furious harmonics, and heavy moments that allow the composition to breathe while maintaining its intensity, better revving up the machine until the final.
Far from being a rehash of Old School Death Metal, Nocturnal Visions offers a handful of effective and well-crafted riffs that are sure to make Invictus a challenger of choice for the underground scene. Its only flaw? The album is a little short.
90/100